Weekend Binge . . .

This weekend we binged — NOPE, not on food, but these . . .A trio of romantic films written and/or directed by the late Nora Ephron. It was too HOT to be outdoors. Luckily, we (still) have a dual VHS/DVD player AND the library (still) had VHS copies. We own DVD copies, but they’ve been packed as part of de-cluttering.

This marathon was our personal tribute not only to Ms. Ephron, but to romantic comedies that SO much better then any current films: When Harry Met Sally (Billy Crystal & Meg Ryan), Sleepless in Seattle (Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan), You've Got Mail (Hanks & Ryan).

The films are not inter-connected and the characters (and plots) differ in each so don’t have to be watched in any sequence; that said, we watched them in order of release date. To recap . . .

Harry Met Sally (1989) follows the title characters from post graduation when they met to share a drive from Chicago to NY and  through 12 years of encounters in NYC. The film’s central dilemma: Can men and women ever be friends?

Sleepless  (1993) was inspired by the 1957 An Affair to Remember (Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr). The films climactic ending at the top of the Empire State Building refers to a similarly planned reunion between Grant and Kerr. Clips of the 1957 appear in Sleepless.

You’ve Got Mail (1998) is about two people who exchange romantic emails  unaware that the other person is someone with whom they share a degree of animosity. Its title comes from the AOL email notification. Like Sleepless, it’s based on a previous film, the 1940 The Shop Around the Corner (Jimmy Stewart & Margaret Sullivan) and a 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime (Judy Garland & Van Johnson).

Nora Ephron’s screenwriting credits as writer, director, producer include SO many more including: Heartburn, Silkwood, Michael, Mixed Nuts, Bewitched, Julie and Julia.  The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb) has the full listing.

I’m also reading a couple of Ms. Ephron’s popular essay collections: I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing. She famously wrote about what she would miss or not . . .

Among the things she would miss: family, waffles, bacon, the park, reading in bed, fireworks, laughs, butter, dinner at home, taking a bath, pie, the Christmas tree . . . and NOT miss: bad dinners, funerals, email, dry skin, polls, mammograms, dead flowers, bills, small print, technology, sound of the vacuum cleaner . . .

Hope you all kept cool — Welcome to July !